Dry

This section of the novel, which takes place after a time jump of a few weeks beyond the conclusion of the Tap-Out, serves as an epilogue. Both the snapshot of Disneyland and Alyssa’s concluding chapter focus on the aftermath of the disaster, showing how well (or not well) people have recovered from the trauma that the Tap-Out caused. The Disneyland snapshot focuses on hope, although it acknowledges the many losses that occurred. As a ticket-counter prepares to open for business, he thinks about the incoming crowd: “Why else would so many need to be in the one place where magic still exists? Where hope is eternal?” (376). Disneyland represents a return to normalcy. It also represents a place of hope, which stands in contrast to the death and desperation of the Tap-Out.

Alyssa sees more nuance in the aftermath. At the grocery store, a place that also represents a return to normalcy, she thinks, “I’ve found there are four kinds of people now…there are the oblivious ones, who go about their lives like the Tap-Out was a dream…then there are the ones like us, who lived through it and are still facing the PTSD of it all…then there are the fulfilled ones. The people who found something in themselves they didn’t know was there…and finally there are the shadows” (378-379). Of these four groups, the Tap-Out has made an irreversible change in three. Even the oblivious ones will be different, at least in how others like Alyssa view them. Among those who changed, Alyssa sees some good and some bad. Some people became heroes, while others became villains, and some, like her, still suffer from their trauma. By ending with the aftermath, therefore, the authors of Dry show how varied the effects of disaster can be. Just as the many points of view in this novel show how different people survive, this epilogue shows how different people in different circumstances can thrive, or fail to, after surviving is done.